His Royal Slyness (Roach) (as the American boy); Haunted Spooks (Roach and Goulding) (as the boy); An EasternWesterner (Roach) (as the boy); High and Dizzy (Roach) (as Harold Hal); Get Out and Get Under (Roach); Number, Please (Roach and Newmeyer) (as the boy)

1921

Now or Never (Roach and Newmeyer—three-reeler); Among Those Present (Newmeyer) (as O'Reilly, the boy); I Do (as the boy); Never Weaken (Newmeyer—three-reeler) (as the boy)

On LLOYD: film—

Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius, television documentary directed by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, 1989.

* * *

The sophistication and maturation of the silent screen comedy feature emerged in only a few years in the early 1920s—a phenomenon that came from the innovative efforts of Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton. As these three comedians graduated from one- and two-reel films, the scope of the five- and six-reel works dictated a need for a wider range of story material and a variety in acting levels and styles. An article entitled "Comedy Development," by Lloyd in the 1924 Truth about the Movies by the Stars indicated the actor saw the necessity of avoiding the same theme and type of film: "It is our intention to mix up the type of offering we will present. That has been our policy in the past, and it has worked out highly satisfactorily. . . . For no matter how great the appeal of a player, he cannot go on forever giving his public the same kind of picture, release after release."

As a very popular comedian in his one- and two-reelers, the actor first employed a character with limited dimension. From 1915 to 1918 Lloyd used an oddball tramp, Lonesome Luke, closely related to the circus clown and relied on wacky comic material that became the staple of a Mack Sennett slapstick short. When he switched to a character closer to that developed by the light comedians of the time—the young man next door—his acting style changed and his characterization became more appealing. A more realistic mode of acting became evident in his 1919 one-reel, Just Neighbors. The comedian developed incidents of frustration in the beginning of the film as he played a young man from the suburbs trying to catch a commuter train to his job in the city. The struggle of this character, called simply "The Boy," exhibited subtle facial expressions of annoyance, avoiding the broad body gestures of the earlier Lonesome Luke tramp character. Nevertheless, when Lloyd's young man gets into an altercation with his neighbor, a broad, slapstick fistfight shows a return to the comedy acting style of Lloyd's early films.

When Lloyd adopted the story material of the genteel comedians of the twenties—Charles Ray, Wallace Reid, and Douglas MacLean—he surpassed them in acting skills and the quality and quantity of laughable movies. In the development of a comic character in his first feature, Grandma's Boy (1922), the comedian could create a lighter, character-based humor of humiliation set against a stronger, broader, and ludicrous situation when his shy, withdrawn character metamorphosizes into an aggressive young man battling a villain. From hangdog expressions and wilted bodily movements the comedian showed a transition to a bold, erect stature of a man with a jutting aggressive jaw.

The key to understanding the comic character created by Lloyd lies in the leading figure's zeal. The enthusiasm of this character gives it distinction. Leading comedians of the time—Chaplin, Keaton, and Langdon—seldom used this trait in their comic characters. Lloyd, on the other hand, used this trait as the basic facet of his portrait. Some of the best comic moments of his films occur when Harold's zeal leads him into situations that backfire. His eagerness to be successful socially or financially leads him into the path of a rival who is a villain or into a scheme with many pitfalls. The comedian's acting ability comes into play as he attempts to cover his distress with a twisted smile. Attempts to impress a college clique in the 1925 The Freshman show the comedian exhibiting overeagerness to the point that he becomes the subject of the group's ridicule. As the character is humiliated, Lloyd provides a variety of humorous, pained expressions. But eventually the character's enthusiasms turns the tide in his favor. The fault that gains laughter is also the virtue that wins the victory. And victory quite often is achieved with the assistance of luck.

One of the misconceptions that has distorted the evaluation of Harold Lloyd's comic abilities is the view of some critics that he merely used a string of clever gags in his features—that he was in the same league as the lightweight, genteel comedians such as Ray, Reid, and MacLean who were popular actors in the silent features of the twenties. In the essay "Harold Lloyd: Comedy through Characterization" in Harold Lloyd: The King of Daredevil Comedy, Leonard Maltin refutes this concept. Maltin considers the comedian's acting talent to be an integral part of the characterization in the pictures he created: "For in order for that character to succeed as he did, there had to be a basic credibility . . . in his disarmingly natural performances. Like so many great performers who make their work look easy, Lloyd suffered the natural consequence of having certain critics believe that he wasn't really contributing much to his own films—that he was simply a likable fellow surrounded by funny incidents, and therefore a success by circumstance. This does a great injustice to a major comedy talent."

There is little doubt that Harold Lloyd has the credentials to be ranked as one of the kings of comedy of the silent period. A showing today of his Grandma's Boy, Safety Last, The Freshman, and The Kid Brother brings high praise from sophisticated audiences. Not well known are his sound films. Lloyd made the transition to sound pictures more easily than the other three kings of comedy: Chaplin, Keaton, and Langdon. Like the eager, adventurous character he portrayed, Lloyd plunged into sound films with Welcome Danger in 1929. Under his own supervision he did five more feature in the thirties: Feet First, Movie Crazy, The Cat's Paw, The Milky Way, and Professor Beware. His last feature in 1947 under the direction of Preston Sturges, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (renamed Mad Wednesday), did not meet with Lloyd's high standards. Nevertheless, this forties film and his sound films of the thirties were a match for if not superior to other comedies created in these two decades.

—Donald McCaffrey

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Harold Lloyd

Encyclopedia of World Biography
COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.

Harold Lloyd

Beginning his career in motion pictures in 1914 and quickly moving under the direction of Hal Roach, Harold Lloyd (1893-1971) developed a bespectacled "nice-guy" persona that transformed him into one of the most popular comedians of the silent film era.

Apair of dark, oversized horn-rimmed glasses providing him with a recognizable trademark comparable to Charlie Chaplin's black mustachio and Buster Keaton's deadpan expression, silent film actor Harold Lloyd matured from a film extra into one of America's most popular comedians, embodying as he did the mythos of the hard-working, optimistic, all-American boy-next-door. He exhibited physical agility and courage while performing the daredevil stunts that appeared in many of his films throughout the 1920s and the early 1930s. Yet, Lloyd's primary role on-screen was as a shy, somewhat nervous young man who, through misadventure rather than any fault of his own, was constantly confronted by circumstances threatening to thwart his efforts at a quiet, happy life. More recent generations of film fans still recognize Lloyd from the movie stills that depict his conservative character in some sort of incongruous predicament. He may have been hanging many yards from the ground, from one hand of a huge clock face, or clinging to the side of a skyscraper, with no way down. Among Lloyd's most notable films were The Freshman and Safety Last, both made before the advent of talking pictures.

Bitten by the Acting Bug

Born in Burchard, Nebraska, on April 20, 1893, Lloyd inherited a stubborn pioneering spirit from his grandfather, owner of one of the state's first general stores. His family moved frequently due to his rootless father's shifting career choices. At one point, J. Darsie Lloyd dabbled in photography, while another year found him running a pool hall. Young Harold managed to stay in school and completed his high school education in San Diego, California. By 1911, the start of his senior year, Lloyd had demonstrated his intelligence through his skill on the debate team and his physical agility in the boxing ring. Because of the extensive acting experience he accumulated over his teen years, Lloyd was awarded leading roles in all the school plays, as well as in several local theatre productions.

Seeing the 1903 showing of The Great Train Robbery fixed forever in Lloyd's mind an exciting possibility: working in the movies. Fascinated by acting and the theatre since he was a small boy, Lloyd had developed a collection of useful skills ranging from stagehand and makeup artistry through a range of talents gained from a series of backstage apprenticeships. While films raised his interest, the stage continued to be Lloyd's home until his late teens. His first acting experience came on the stage, with his debut that of Fleance in a small-town production of Shakespeare's Macbeth. In 1907, 11-year-old Lloyd began a relationship with the Burwood, Nebraska, Stock Company that enabled him to go on stage whenever a production called for casting a young boy.

After graduation from high school in San Diego, Lloyd established a new working relationship to replace that which he had lost by leaving Burwood. He put his make-up skills to use at the New Grand Theatre Stock Company, by disguising his youth and playing old men and other unusual characters. A small part in a silent film shot in San Diego by the Edison Company in 1913 rekindled Lloyd's interest in movies when he was cast as a Yanqui Indian and paid $3 for a day's shooting. In 1913, he traveled to Los Angeles, where he found roles in several stage productions. Lloyd also pursued his dream of working in films by donning full makeup and sneaking into one of several film studios by mixing in with groups of working actors returning from their lunch break. This technique gained him more small parts with Edison and eventually got him a position with Hollywood's Universal Studios.

Casting Calls at Hal Roach Studios

While waiting for casting calls at Universal, Lloyd became friends with Hal Roach, a fellow film extra and an aspiring film director. Benefiting from a family inheritance in 1914, the fortunate Roach achieved his dream and established his own studio the following year. He hired Lloyd to act in several of his one-reel productions as a comedian. Together the two film buffs created a character they called Willie Work, which Lloyd performed. While Willie wasn't that successful with audiences, his next character, Lonesome Luke attracted a following as a film character. Lloyd's growing comedic skills became increasingly noticed. Finally, Pathe studios approached Roach and he lost exclusive use of his friend. The bigger studio lured Lloyd into their stable of actors with promises of better pay—$50 per week, as opposed to the $5 per day he was earning from Roach—and significant leading roles. Under contract to Pathe, Lloyd further developed the Lonesome Luke character as a misfit—inspired by Chaplin's character—garbed in clothing a size too small who ambled, a reel at a time, through short films characterized by little or no plot balanced
against a heavy dose of 100-percent improvised slapstick.

While the Lonesome Luke character continued to be successful, Lloyd soon realized that the extensive frenetic chase scenes and impromptu pratfalls comprising such films were not enough to make him the recognizable star Chaplin was. In 1917, in a one-reel film titled Over the Fence, he finally donned the pair of round, horned-rimmed spectacles, low-key suit, and straw boater hat that would become so familiar to film audiences. Roach and Pathe made their star's new "college boy" look well known to moviegoers, producing an average of a film a week over the next five years. Stumbling along the road to the American dream, Lloyd's "Glass" character proved to be one that audiences identified with. He was not as well endowed with looks, money, or clout as his more successful co-stars. Yet, through sheer determination and quick thinking, Lloyd's character ultimately achieved his goal of modest happiness, spurred on by the attentions of a succession of co-stars that included Bebe Daniels, Mildred Davis, Jobyna Ralston, and Constance Cummings. Pathe produced more than 100 one-reel films featuring the "Glass" character between 1918 and 1919. They switched to two-reel films following the success of Bumping into Broadway.

Crowned King of Daredevil Comedy

Because of films like High and Dizzy (1920) and Safety Last (1923)—famous for the scene where the actor, billed here as a timid store clerk, dangles from the face of a clock tower—Lloyd developed a reputation as a risk-taker. Like Buster Keaton, Lloyd performed his own stunts, despite the fact that he had received a disabling injury as early as 1919, when a prop bomb created for a special film effect, exploded in his hand during a publicity photo session, blowing off his thumb and almost blinding the actor. However, Lloyd proved wrong any and all predictions claiming his career to be at an end. Back on the job within six months, he expanded his roles and made longer films, starring in his first five-reel feature, Grandma's Boy, for Pathe in 1922.

The movie-going public clamored for more full-length films from Lloyd, and his future as a major film star was assured. Working with the Roach and Pathe studios through the early 1920s, the actor also founded the Harold Lloyd Corporation to produce many of his films between 1924 and 1930. He would continue to do work under contract for Pathe, Fox, and Paramount throughout his career.

Advent of "Talkies" Dampened Lloyd's Appeal

In the typical Lloyd film, the actor played his characteristic persona: a slightly bumbling, naive, quiet fellow— variously a shop clerk, soda jerk, professor, water boy, or milkman—who gets in one fix or another during his pursuit of a disinterested love interest. In Why Worry (1923), Lloyd played a rich young man who has shied from life due to a host of imagined illnesses. Ultimately, he manages to secure the affections of a initially unenthusiastic Mildred Davis. (Interestingly, Miss Davis must have felt quite differently about her co-star off-screen for she and Lloyd were married while the film was being shot at Roach's studio.) In The Freshman (1925), considered by many to be Lloyd's best effort, the bespectacled actor serves as a shy water boy working for his college football team. In typical Lloyd fashion, the geeky freshman ends up saving the game through a freak touchdown just before the game is called. One of the most profitable silent films ever made, The Freshman grossed $2.5 million at the U.S. box-offices.

The introduction of sound to motion pictures ended the career of many silent film stars—particularly romantic leads—whose voices contained accents or other inflections that contradicted the on-screen images they had created during the silent era. While Lloyd's career, which had flourished during the 1920s, did not suffer with the introduction of his voice—characterized by one reviewer as "bland and boyish"—the introduction of dialogue eventually wrought a change within his motion picture audience. In short, the coming of sound supplanted film audience's desire for over-the-top stunts in favor of dialogue and more in-depth characters whose psychological interactions became central to film plots. Despite the success of films such as his 1932 talkie Movie Crazy, by the mid-1930s Lloyd began to consider retiring from the film business. Professor Beware (1938) dissatisfied the actor to such an extent that he retired from acting for several years, devoting his talents to producing several films for RKO.

In 1945, Lloyd once again moved briefly back in front of the camera. The 1947 release of The Sins of Harold Diddlebock as a tepid sequel to the popular The Freshman would mark the end of Lloyd's acting career. Produced by Howard Hughes and directed by Preston Sturges, the film was a screwball comedy typical of the 1940s, featuring a 52-year-old Lloyd still wearing the same horn-rimmed glasses and conservative attire but now uncharacteristically maintaining both feet on the ground. Rereleased as Mad Wednesday, the film did little to spark either audience enthusiasm or its star's desire to resume life as an actor.

After retirement from film, Lloyd remained active in both California's Republican political arena and within his local Hollywood community. Active in the Shriners, he was elected Imperial Potentate of the Shrine in 1949, and served in this national post as a good-will ambassador to the many children's hospitals supported by that organization. The father of three children, Lloyd and his family lived in a large home in Beverly Hills. Retired by age 60, he reaped the benefits of a large income earned both through a strenuous acting career, in which he appeared in more than 500 movies, and from a responsible approach to investing his earnings. A savvy businessman, Lloyd wisely kept control of the film rights to many of the motion pictures he starred in over his lifetime. At the time of his death in Hollywood on March 8, 1971, he left an estate estimated to be one of the largest in Hollywood at that time, its value drawn in part from the fact that much of Lloyd's money was made prior to the establishment of Federal income taxes.

In the early 1960s, Lloyd made compilations of scenes from several of his films. They were released as Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy (1962) and Harold Lloyd's FunnySide of Life (1963), with cuts of Lloyd suspended at a precarious height featured prominently in each. Today Lloyd's films are little shown, with only The Freshman and Safety Last occasionally screened for film buffs. However, his reputation among scholars of motion pictures and fan of early American films remains secure. In 1952, to honor his work as one of the first great film comedians, a special Academy Award was presented: "To Harold Lloyd, master comedian and good citizen."

Further Reading

D'Augustino, Annette M., Harold Lloyd, Greenwood Press, 1994.

Kerr, Walter, The Silent Clowns, Knopf, 1975.

Lloyd, Harold, An American Comedy, 1928.

The Oxford Companion to Film, edited by Liz-Anne Bawden, Oxford University Press, 1976.

Shipman, David, The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years, Crown, 1970. □

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Lloyd, Harold

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

Copyright The Columbia University Press

Harold Lloyd, 1893–1971, American movie actor. Born in tiny Burchard, Kans., he came to California in 1912. Lloyd became famous for his comic portrayals of a wistful innocent with horn-rimmed glasses who blunders in and out of hair-raising situations, e.g., hanging from the hands of a clock high above a city in Safety Last (1923), often considered his masterpiece. Lloyd's natural style of acting helped to create a believable character that made him the most popular film comedian of the 1920s. He appeared in more than 500 films, including many shorts and 18 feature-length films, spanning both the silent and sound eras; among them were Girl Shy (1924), The Freshman (1925), Movie Crazy (1932), and Mad Wednesday (1947). Lloyd was also the subject of two compilations, Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy (1962) and The Funny Side of Life (1963), which he produced and edited.

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Lloyd, Harold

Lloyd, Harold (1893–1971) US film actor. Lloyd was hired by Hal Roach in 1914 to star in comedy shorts. Lloyd modelled himself on Charlie Chaplin, but added cliff-hanging, death-defying stunts, such as hanging from the a skyscraper clockface in Safety Last (1923). His success waned in the sound era and he made his final film, Mad Wednesday, in 1947.

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